MLB will produce and distribute local games for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Minnesota Twins for the 2025 season. The new arrangement will give fans more options to watch their favorite teams on television or to stream digitally.
In addition, the Texas Rangers have determined that they will no longer be partnering with Diamond Sports Group and are considering their local media options for the 2025 season.
Last season, the Guardians reach on its RSN was approximately 1.45 million households and the Twins reached approximately 1.08 million homes. With MLB’s direct-to-consumer streaming option, Cleveland’s games now can reach up to approximately 4.86 million households (+235%) and Minnesota expands to approximately 4.40 million homes (+307%). With a similar household audience, Milwaukee had a direct-to-consumer streaming option available with their previous local media arrangement and will continue to do so with MLB moving forward.
The arrangements with the Guardians, Brewers, and Twins will be similar to how MLB produced and distributed games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, and San Diego Padres during the 2024 season. Last season, MLB negotiated cable and satellite distribution agreements and made direct-to-consumer streaming options available at Dbacks.TV, Padres.TV, and Rockies.TV.
“With the media landscape continuing to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can see their favorite Clubs, removing blackouts where we can, and ultimately growing the reach of our games,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media. “We are proud to bring Guardians, Brewers and Twins games to their passionate fan bases with the same high-quality production that we have demonstrated in Arizona, Colorado, and San Diego.”
Local games produced by MLB last year included special features normally associated with nationally televised games including Ump Cam, live look-ins to the MLB Replay Operations Center, Wire Cam, on-field locations for pregame and postgame, new RF camera with a shallow depth-of-field look, and increased access like in-game interviews with players.
“In addition to expanding reach, Major League Baseball is utilizing resources to provide fans with an outstanding production that features new technology, improved picture quality, and better access to the game and players,” said Billy Chambers, MLB Executive Vice President, Local Media.
Since 2009, Major League Baseball has owned and operated MLB Network, which has produced live games for 16 seasons, been critically praised for its content, and won 42 National Sports Emmy Awards across 13 different categories. Major League Baseball was the first professional sports league to live-stream a regular season game on August 26, 2002. In 2024, baseball fans streamed 14.5 billion minutes of live baseball games and content on MLB.TV, a record for the service.
More information about where and how fans can watch will be made available closer to the 2025 season.
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